The Black Knight
by Jumping Bean
Summary: I'm so tired of the Knight in white armor, I think the knight in black armor needs a life too.
1. Chapter 1

The Black Knight

In this fairy tale, we shall start, like most fairy tales, with a princess. She was as usual, the youngest, but she was far from sweet hearted and would-never-harm-a-fly- even-if-it-had-a-death-wish kind. Instead she led her ladies in waiting on wild goose chases, snuck tarantulas and pythons in her sisters' beds, and once came to a banquet in a dress covered in mud. It was a terribly fancy banquet too, the richest men and women where there, in their jewel studded fancy-ness.

Where this story begins, we find the young princess, Julia, well Julianna Mariposa Her Majesty Youngest Royal Highness, in the garden, just beneath her balcony, digging through the mud for worms in one of her best dresses. A small crown perched precariously on her head, threatening to fall off.

Her balcony was a beautiful one, made of polished marble stone, with flowers veining up the railing. Julia had been put in that room, solely because of the balcony. It was considered romantic, and every one knows the youngest is always the one to be picked by a handsome and worthy prince. At least this was the thought process that was going through the King and Queen's mind when they put her in that room. As Julia grew older, the royal family realized how far fetched these fantasies would become.

"Princess Julia! Princess! Where are you?" Hearing the voice of one of her hand maids. Julia stiffened, and then gathered the worms she could find in her skirts. They created interesting designs in the silk, thought the princess. Julia darted behind a nearby bush to hide.

The maid hand came into view, she was a young one, but already worn thin from the Princess's antics. "Princess, this isn't funny! You could be killed by bandits! I heard that there is a black knight running about, it isn't safe for young princesses to be running about unescorted!"

Julia listened amused; she knew that there where guards all around the wall that surrounded the palace. She was completely safe in the garden, and completely trapped, like the parrot bird that her father had given her for her twelfth birthday. It squawked pitifully and struggled against the bars of the cage. Julia set it free that night, she had been lectured brutally by both her parents, and her previous hand maid called her a 'wicked, spoilt brat.' Julia knew that old maid had been eying the colored feathers and was imagining herself in a new hat.

"Princess! If I can't find you, they'll behead me! Now that's not fair is it?" Called the hand maid. She had a point there, thought Julia bitterly. She stood, but not before cupping the worms in her hands and setting them down, carefully in the dirt around the bush. The hand maid nearly fainted when she saw the state of her ruler.

"Princess, you're in such a state, my hair has turned white by just looking at you." She said sadly. Julia gave a sort of half shrug, mostly lost due to the puffy sleeves. "Come along, if you would please, your highness, I'll get you set up with a bath. Would rose scented be pleasurable?" The Hand Maid marveled how much talking to the youngest princess was so much like talking to a wall.

Julia followed the hand maid to the bathing room, dragging her slippers on the stone floor of the castle. "Really, Princess! Can't you walk without dragging your feet as so?" She snapped at the princess. Her eyes widened when she realized that she had yelled at a future queen. "Oh Princess, please don't tell! I didn't mean to yell, honest, I've just had a bad week... My mother..." She trailed off; she was going to be executed for sure. What would her poor, elderly mother do with out her?

"What's your name?" Asked the Princess in a quiet voice. It rasped from not using it in a while.

"Abigail Mcgulard, your Highness." She said, she could taste her bile rise in her throat, she could feel the end of her life coming.

"Well, Abby," The Hand Maid sputtered at the Princesses shortening of her name. "You should know that over twenty people have told me to stop dragging my feet, and I still do." She said with a proud 'humph.' The princess said no more and walked on to the bathing room. The hand maid followed behind confused to why she wasn't being dragged down to the dungeons.

The Princess took her sweet old time in that bath, Abigail did not mind, she was busy conversing with, her opinion, a very handsome harp player about the local gossip. "Well, as I'd be saying to my manager, I've been saying, 'with this black knight, we best be getting off the road' he's all for saying, 'we ain't got nothing, why should we be going into hiding?' I'd be a reckoning that that black knight will give this kingdom a spot of trouble."

"Well, as long as that horrid beast doesn't come near the princess, I suppose I'd be content." She said, her words were a clever cover up for, "As long as that string of offensive words not fit for a lady says away from the palace, which is where my mother is, I will not think much of him."

"Ah, that'd be righteously noble of you, to think of the Highnesses before all else." He said, and then announced, to her disappointment, that he had to leave. She waved her farewell, and went to fetch the Young Princess, from the bath. Surely by now the Princess's water would be cold. The Hand Maid pushed the door only to find the Princess trying to clasp the hooks on her under dress, her hair dripping wet. "Stupid hooks, why can't they use ties?" She was muttering to her self.

"Princess, why didn't you call me? I would've helped you, surely you knew that?"

"Of course I knew you would come running if I called. But what is the point in having fingers if you're not going to use them?"

"You're such a wild child." The Hand Maid said disbelievingly. If she had servants acting on her whim, her fingers could fall off and she wouldn't notice.

"I'm a wild child because I try to dress myself? No offense to my family, but I don't understand why the 'higher education' my sisters and I receive, don't include how to put on a dress." She said her fingers slipping over the hooks.

"Here, Princess, let me teach you."

The two were seated in Julia's room, smelling of roses, The Hand Maid was telling a humorous story about her grandmother, when she was still alive, but losing her memory, she had ended up in a very odd situation involving a cauldron, a sheep, two tons of thread and the milk boy who she thought was her granddaughter.

"That's a bit odd, don't you think? How did your grandmother end up on her head?" Julia asked brushing a long still damp lock of hair out of her face.

"Lord knows, I only wish she was still around, she could tell the most amazing stories, when she wasn't looking for the hair pin she put in her bun two seconds before." She said, putting her hand in front of her mouth to hide a giggle.

"Why do you do that?" Julia asked suddenly pointed to the Hand Maid's delicate hand poised over her mouth.

"Why do I do what?" She asked, alarmed, would the princess get rid of her if she found a flaw?

"That... thing, I've seen almost every woman do that, when they hide that their giggling behind their hand. Everyone knows their laughing, why hide it? Isn't being happy a good thing?" She said, her brows knit together.

Abigail stuttered at first, she never thought of it. "Well... You're Highness, I mean... I've never truly thought of it... my mother used to do it, so I picked it up from her. Mother used to say, a lady is meant to be seen, never heard."

"Why? What's so bad about us talking? We might have good advice." Julia said her head tilted delicately to the side.

"Those sort of things are best left to the men, dearie." She said, needless to say, she had gotten to know the princess. Earlier this day she would have never dared to call a future leader, 'dearie.'

"Well, that's just stupid," the princess said, her arms crossed.

"You're Majesty!" The Hand Maid said in shock, her hands flew to her face, "You mustn't use such language! No one will wish to marry you if you're vulgar!"

"Is that all I'm here for? The only reason my sisters and I were kept around? So that we could be married off?" She asked.

"Child, that's why all women on earth are here," The maid said defeated, her head hung with the reality of it all. She was taking care of her mother now, her grandmother before that, soon she'd have to take care of a man, and how many children he wanted.

"I don't want that, I want to run away." The girl said bravely.

"Where would you go?" she said quietly.

"Anywhere without walls anywhere else instead of here." Abigail nodded her head at the girl's fancies. She heard a clanging and shouts from outside.

"Oh really!" exclaimed the hand maid. "Those knights, can't they practice elsewhere? It's almost time for your reading." She got up, and tried to smoothen her crumbled skirts, and then went out to the balcony. Then quickly shouted to the Princess, "Oh! Julianna, come here quick!"

Julia stood and wandered on to the balcony. The clanging happened to be as Abigail suspected, knights practicing with their heavy swords. But they weren't the normal knights. In the middle was a white knight. He was a hero to the kingdom. Julia gazed upon the face that one day she would most likely marry. He was so old at least thirty. She was only sixteen, their marriage wasn't official yet, but the King and the Queen would hint at it almost obsessively.

The hand maid sighed at Julia's stony expression. She led the princess to her bed, and tucked her ruler in like her mother had once tucked herself and her brother in.

Julia lay in her bed, having just been startled awake, but by what she could not figure out. The shadows crept over the stone walls and tapestries as shadows do. It wasn't particularly cold, or hot. But if she strained her ears and held her breath, she could hear a clanging echoing in the hallways, as if someone with metal shoes was walking down the stone tiles. Dismissing it as a patrol guard's newest fashion, she fell back on her still warm pillows, and made a metal note to talk to the heads of the guards about the clanging. She fell back to sleep. Her dreams full of metal shoes and dancing guards.

The sunlight hit her eyelids with sudden vengeance. "Abby, do be a dear and shut the curtain won't you?" she mumbled and rolled over to get away from the sunlight. When the room did not darken, signaling the shutting of heavy curtains, no shuffle of dainty slippers to the window. Instead the pungent smell of something burning mixed with the fresh smell of grass. The usual satin sheets where heavy and itchy, she could hear crickets chirping.

She observed her surroundings without opening her eyes. Either her sisters where playing a joke on her for putting spiders in their glossy ringlets, and stink plants in their perfume. This was unlikely, her sisters had no sense of humor, their revenge consisted on telling the Queen and King what she had done. Her other option was that she had been kidnapped, Oh how romantic said a mocking voice in her head. Her advisers had warned her before that there was a high probability that they could be kidnapped. Julia had actually laughed at this, there were guards everywhere, and how could anyone get passed?

As you can probably guess, this is a very critical part of the fairy tale. This is when she meets her captor. There have been studies that say when you have become kidnapped, and they don't torture and kill you straight away, you come to develop a bond with them. You get used to them; you develop a friend ship... But that comes later. Usually at first the two hate each other.

She stiffed when the clanging of something loud and very metal pasted her. And again, and again. Someone was trying to wake her up? Or kill a scuttling spider with two frying pans?

Julia rolled over, trying to make look as natural as someone rolling over in their sleep, and opened her eyes just a crack. She saw an armored man pacing, he looked rather nervous, or she guessed he looked nervous his visor was over his face. Or maybe her face, the armor clad person could just as easily be a woman.

How adventurous it would be to sneak into a King's army being a girl? Being a hero! Julia's adventures with the tame pythons were nothing compared to the wild adventures playing in her head. If she could own a horse that was not plump with sugar cubes and without ribbons in its hair, but one that was lean and very, very fast, with its mane cut short like all the other war horses.

Then again, who's to say, this isn't an adventure, thought Julia happily. She was away from the walls, away from the heavy skirts and corsets that she could hardly breathe in, not to mention move in. Then a horrid thought struck her, she was in her nightgown, in front of a complete stranger. Maybe, she reasoned, maybe she'll (Julia was quite sure the armored figure was a girl.) lend me some breaches.

She stirred; to make it known she was awake. "Um... hello, knight, may I borrow some clothing please?" That sounded rather stupid she realized. Wasn't it proper curtsy to ask for their name first, before you request something from them (unless they were a servant of course)? Did the same rule apply to kidnappers?

The knight stood there for a few moments, as though she had forgotten Julia was there. Then she lifted her visor, and there was a very confused, very male face.

"HOW CAN YOU BE A MAN?" She exclaimed in anger. If the face of the knight was bewildered it was at least ten times that now.

"Err... I believe I was born... are you in the right state of mind? Usually people ask, 'Where am I?' and 'Why did you kidnap me?' When they realize someone has stolen them" He said, there was dirt on his cheek.

"Humph. Very well... Why did you kidnap me?" she said still simmering.

The knight suddenly went red, at least Julia believed it went red, it was rather hard to tell with all of that dirt on his face. Why had he told her to ask a question that he did not want to answer? At first Julia thought he wouldn't answer, like many maids would simply bow their heads and bite their tongues, but then to Julia's dismay, he opened his mouth, again. "Well I need help... you see,"

"Political help can be received between the hours of twelve and one. Require within castle walls." The Princess automatically recited. It had been drilled into her mind countless times. She was never to answer to a beggar, instead she was to recite this and walk away, quickly.

"No, I don't need political help; do you really think a black night could approach the King without getting pierced through the gut?"

Julia raised an eyebrow mulling it over. "Are you certain you do not wish to attempt to be heard by my father?" The knight shot her an annoyed look.

"No, I need the great sum of money that your ransom will get me." He plowed on as though her comment wasn't important enough to mull over. "And that, your majesty is really the only thing you need to know."

"That's not polite, you shouldn't hint at something and then refuse to tell." Julia argued. She was upset, she strongly belived that due to the fact that she was a vital part of some money making scheme, then she should know what for.

"No, that's being smart." He replied then placed the visor back over his face, signaling that he was finished with the converstation. Julia wondered for a moment how he could see out of the pitch black helmet, but then the Black Knight tripped and fell flat on his shiny, metal face, and Julia came to the conclusion that he simply couldn't.

-

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**A/N** Thanks for reading this, It means allot to me. Yes so I've gotten very annoyed at the normal type of fairy tale with the shinning white knight and the stupid defenseless princess so I'm going to attempt my own fairy tale thats a bit different I hope. But I don't really know what to write next, or if I should just abandon the story all together, tell me what you think or how you think the story should go, I'll thank you forever.


	2. Chapter 2

.:Chapter two:. 

The Black Knight

A few weeks past or maybe it was a few months. The days all swirled into one. Julia had no idea how long she had been stranded with the Black Knight, walking after him through cities and woods and plains. The towns all looked the same, dusty and collapsing with people just sitting out front, the woods where all the same too, brown, green, and difficult to walk straight in.

They on a rare occasion got to sleep at inns. They were dirty and smelled as though they hadn't been clean in ages. When they didn't sleep at inn's they slept anywhere else, in bushes, in long grass nestled between tree roots on moss, none of it was very comfortable. The Black Knight was always the last one to go to sleep and the first to rise in the morning, The Princess suspected that he didn't sleep at all.

The Princess resented being kidnaped with a passion, but the days and days of mundane walking and stopping and walking again dulled all of her emotions. Instead of outright screaming and yelling, she found another way to drive the Knight into insanity, complaining. It was easy too; it didn't take as much energy.

The Black Knight found that kidnaping a princess was simple, the difficult part was keeping your head as she complained non-stop. Hours mulling over castle maps that you first had to steal, and then plotting the safest course through the guard infested hallways?, even climbing the thirty foot wall was nothing compared this strenuous task. The dirt was to dirty, the peasant?s clothing was too itchy, didn't fit her properly, and on and on she went. Finally after listening to her ask in such a whine of a voice, why the ground was so difficult to get comfortable on he snapped.

"Shut the hell up!" He cried cutting her off in mid rant, replacing the impossible to ignore whinny voice with his loud, impossible to ignore, and childish rant of his own. "I can't take it anymore! You?re an absolute NIGHTMARE! I just kidnaped you; can't you treat me with some respect? I can't stand your mindless, stupid chatter anymore!" He reminded the princess of a toddler throwing a tantrum, complete with foot stomping and hands clasped tightly to his ears.

"So, you'll take me back to the castle?" she asked brightly immediately perking up, sitting straighter from her place around the campfire, which was too small in her opinion.

"No! I told you I need the damn ransom money!" He shouted, and then crossed his arms, "Why do you want to go back to that unbearable castle anyway? It gets so unbearably cold in the winter, and it?s like a stupid oven in the summer." He said it as though he taken an insult to her preferring the castle then being with him.

Picking up on his tone of voice, the princess smirked, "I don't really want to go back, but I really don't want to be in the company of a foul-mouthed criminal either, I'm sure you understand my position."

"And stop doing that!" He yelled pointing at her.

At this all she had to say was a un-lady like and very stupid sounding "huh?"

"That stupid smug, I'm-better-then-you-and-the-whole-world-should-know-it answer thing that you do. It?s annoying!" He would go hoarse soon, Julia was sure of it.

At that moment something scaly had become attentive of the presence of the couple, drawn to the spot by all the loud metallic banging and the loud shouts (Not to mention the sheer loud-ness).

The creature roared loudly, steam pouring out of its nostrils and mouth. Its impressive scales, the size of a grown man's head, shimmered in the dim sunlight better then even the best cleaned plate of armor could. The knight?s eyes widened at the size of the massive fangs it bared and identified the creature immediately,

"A dragon," he gasped, he slowly reached for his sword afraid that any sudden movements would cause him great pain and death by means of one giant lizard.

"Oh! Don't do that!" He heard Julia cry from behind him. Oh darn it she's going to get us killed. He thought, "Let's talk to it! I'm sure we can reason with it!"

"Are you out of your bloody mind? What on earth did you inhale that makes you believe that it can talk?" He asked appalled that in her excitement in seeing a dragon she had actually moved in front of him to take a closer look at it in all its lethal glory.

She glanced back at the knight with a confused look on her dainty little face, "but in all the stories-"

"They were all fake, you suicidal mess of a princess! Dragons are just over grown lizards with wings and a giant 'kill anything that moves' instinct. Now move away slowly, stupid." He hissed furiously, though from fear of the dragon or for loosing his voice from all the shouting, Julia could not be sure.

The princess 'humph'ed at him, but did start to inch away from the creature. She felt really very stupid and resented it quite a bit. Suddenly a thought struck quite forcefully into her mind;

"Hey, are you going to fight the dragon?"

"Are you daft? Of course not!" Julia opened her mouth to ask exactly what did he plan to do with that giant sword then, when he threw it quite suddenly and amazingly it hit a cynical looking bird. It squawked loudly enough to wake the dead, and in this case attract a very large dragon to the spot where the dead bird was instead of the two breathing humans.

"Oh," said Julia as the lizard's tale slid by her, it was close enough for her to reach out and pluck on of the smaller scales on its tail. But she didn't, that would have been a very stupid thing to do.

Needless to say, Julia was just the tiniest bit impressed that they had managed to escape from such a dangerous animal unscathed. You readers must think that this must be the start of them falling in love. Some romance finally! I'm sorry to do this to you, but this is the start of them beginning to tolerate each other. Romance will come later, I promise you. This did however inspire a very strong will to learn how to fight.

The princess found it very annoying to owe her life to a criminal. It was embarrassing to owe her life at all, she found. (A very smug black knight, who reminded her of it constantly, especially enforced this). She vowed at that very moment to never be defenseless again. So naturally she turned to the only person she knew she could talk to about fighting. The Black Knight.

At first he outright laughed at her. Then when she refused to stop badgering him about it and a very strong grip on his ear forced him to reconsider. And so the strenuous lessons begin. She couldn't even began to pick up something so heavy as a common sword in her delicate hands that had been spoiled by tapestry and lady like activities such as worm digging and cobweb searching, so they began with sticks. Well there was that, and the fact that a dragon, along with the corpse of a certain bird, had digested his sword.

She found there really wasn't all that much to fighting with a sword, you just had to swing harder and faster then the other person and it was over, that was the general ideology had you been in a war, however if it is one sword hand against another there is such things as blocking and dodging.

She discovered quite quickly that she was at a very big disadvantage, being a lot weaker then a man that had practiced for years. She, being a woman, who only started the other day. The Black Knight admitted that swordplay, at least swords that where the most common in this kingdom, wouldn't be good for her. She should learn archery or perhaps use a lighter thinner sword that was famous among other countries or elves. Sadly he was inexperienced at both so the lessons commenced.

The Black Knight found her a slow learner, after all wielding a sword was nothing like wielding a sewing needle, but she was amazingly determined to learn. He promised to teach her how to fight, but he didn't quite understand why. He was taken aback at how furiously she swung her stick, almost constantly breaking it, she may have swung at him with all the strength she could muster but he still could easily overcome her and render her helpless. That only succeeded in making her even more furious. He watched her teeth gnash together and her knuckles go white around the remains of her stick.

It had been a week after she had fallen with the grace of a troll on her ladylike behind, when the Black Knight let it be known that there was actual footwork in sword play. Julia in anger chucked her stub of a stick at his retreating form where it struck the back of his helmet with a satisfying 'clunk'.

Despite the constant arguments and the snide remarks, and the arguments caused by the snide remarks, they got along rather well. Julia admitted to her self she was very fortunate that her captor wasn't violent or a rapist. They got along well, as far as kidnapers and their prisoners go.

She had heard truly terrible tales from woman who came in front of the royal family begging for help, hands clutched tightly around an infant or a protruding stomach. Her mother would then turn to the princesses and warn them that they must never take a step past the walls or else they would suffer the same fate.

She had heard the barest whispers of stories of murder and horrible torture. Of course such stories weren't made for delicate ladies. She learned about them as much as she could, she had a morbid fascination with such stories. The idea that anyone could do something so unimaginable, things like that seemed only to exist in an unreal world.

Like any arrogant person, Julia simply believed that such a thing could never happen to her. It seemly belonged to a different world. One, much more interesting and dangerous, then her own sheltered life behind stone and guards. Like a fairy tale. After being kidnaped and following her prisoner around the countryside from inn to inn she saw the horrors that could befall anyone. She was struck by the sheer possibility of it all.

She realized then why when she had talked with Abby the evening before she had been taken, had seemed incased in despair talking about women's futures. The world wasn't full of free food and satin pillows. Julia found that she could think a lot about pain and suffering as her sore body trudged along behind the knight.

Her calves were sore from walking and her arms that hung limply at her sides were sore from carrying heavy supplies and wielding sticks. She saw her skin turn from a fashionable porcelain white to a common tan-ish brown. She hated all of it.

She mostly hated the idea that even though she had finally escaped the stonewalls, that the outside world wasn't as free as she thought it was. It was like being in a traveling cage, unbearable. Except it was even worse, when you're in a traveling cage you don't have to walk, The Princess did.

Finally the knight singled that they should stop for the night by plopping down by a very large stack of hay. Julia followed the suit almost immediately by falling into the sweet smelling hay with a satisfied sigh.

* * *

Right so this took forever to update, ha! Anyway this chapter existantence is completly thanks to Koki-chan's idea. Right so I hope it's alright.  
If you see some mistake or have a comment about how the plot line should go I could use some constructive critism.

Jumping Bean


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The Black Knight

* * *

Julia lay in the stack of hay staring up into the increasingly darkening sky, the hay was so itchy, and she felt so dirty and irritable lying there. No matter how many times she brushed her hair away from her face, the itching feeling kept coming back. She had a rash that looked an awful lot like it had been caused by bug bites and yesterday, to her utter disgust she had found a tick feeding on her leg. She had seen ticks before and had admired them. When they were on her sister, not her.

The knight had been gone for a while to look for food. Julia for the millionth time since she had been kidnaped wondered about the possibilities of escape. Then for the billionth time came to the conclusion that she had no idea where she was and which direction was the castle. At least with the knight she knew that she wouldn't be hurt. The knight needed the ransom money, something that he reminded her about constantly.

She rolled over, nearly poking her eyeball out with a stick that was standing up right in the hay. She threw it with as much strength as she could muster, and it landed a very sad two feet away.

Julia heard shouting coming from the farmhouse that owned the very hay she was resting in.

"Let us stay here you inhospitable old man! We are weary from traveling all day!" It was a very loud voice, one that sounded like it had a lot of practice shouting over anything close to a fog horn.

"No! I refuse to house you while you rob my family of our meager wages and have your way with my daughter!" It was a feeble, old voice, most likely the farmer. "It is your own fault if you are weary, why don't you act as decent guards and make camp?"

A loud slapping sound echoed through the fields followed by a feminine shriek. The rest Julia could not hear, they had stopped shouting. Obviously the farmer was in trouble, and Julia felt glued to where she lay, paralyzed with fear.

A part of her was screaming, go help them, it is you that they are searching for, they'll leave the poor man alone at once and bring you home. Another part, the part apparently controlling her body refused to let her move. She heard the breaking of dishes and yet more screaming. She wanted to plug her ears and shut her eyes and scream to block out the sounds and the terrible images running through her mind. Then she simply snapped.

"Stop!" She yelled, she simply couldn't take it any more; it was her kingdom and her job to make sure the people were safe, right?

She screamed hysterically as she ran to the farmhouse like a banshee. Her sore limbs forgotten in a surge of adrenaline and fear. She could see some of the guards pale and clutch the hilts of their swords in alarm.

"Stop! Stop! I am the princess! I'm here! I'm here! Leave them alone! ALONE! I say!" As she came closer a few of the braver guards grabbed her arms and held her, trapped, still screaming and pleading. More knights streamed out of the tiny house to form a circle around the spectacle. Even the poor farmer sporting a bruise on his cheek and his trembling daughter ventured out of the house to witness what was happening.

To them it must of seemed ridicules to say the least, a small sun burnt girl held off the ground in the center of fully armed knights, ready to attack with a stick that was bent sadly at the end, due to the manhandling of the knights that had grabbed her. After fully grasping the situation the knights began to laugh heartily, slapping each other on the backs with loud metallic banging sounds. If you are having difficulty imagining the sheer noise that this caused, imagine your younger sibling, and all of his/ her friends gathered in your skull with a frying pan each. Deafening

"How dare you laugh at me! I command you to stop and leave these people alone!" She shouted waving the stick at the nearest knight's face. He calmly swatted the stick away casing it to fly out of her hands and clatter harmlessly a few feet away.

"How do we know you're the true princess?" Asked one of the guards in the back of the room. He had an odd accent.

"Yes, how are we supposed to believe that you, a dirty looking peasant are the Royal Highness Julianna Mariposa?" Asked the white knight. Julia wasn't aware that people actually used her whole name and title when they spoke about her, it was quite a mouthful.

"I shall tell you something that only the true Julia would know." She said, straightening to her full height, that wasn't very impressive at all. It was also difficult while two burly men had you by the arms.

"You best," replied the white knight with a smug smile, "For if you do not we shall be forced to arrest you under the crime of treason, on two accounts."

Two _accounts?_ She thought, _He must be making these things up. I certainly did not pretend to be myself_ twice! _Rules should be written down so that peasents can see them too, otherwise great blokes like this can go and make false accusations. Why if I was one I bet I could arrest a baker for not giving me a jelly donut!_

"I, Julia place spiders in my sister's beds when I am bored." She confessed. She allowed her self a small grin when she heard a collection of gasps.

What she had just confessed was of course, a large political secret that only a few in the castle knew. If the poor ever knew what a ragamuffin the princess truly was... well the King and Queen would be so ashamed they wouldn't be able to show there faces in their own kingdom.

"Lets go." The white knight said quickly waving his knights to leave the house. The poor peasants stood there terribly confused in their wake.

Dear Julia found her self hoist so smoothly onto the White Knight's gleaming horse, that she hadn't realized that she had been lifted she was seated, side-sattle of course, on the proud yet smelly animal.

The time it took to get back to the castle wasn't nearly as long as it took to get lost outside the castle. Only a two day travel on the brilent white horses

When she returned there was a great fuss with much rejoicing and much crying and much shouting and much locking her up in her room. She had been over joyed to be reunited with her family, as spoiled, boring and glossy as they were, Julia could not hate them. They were her family, you wouldn't sell them for anything less then all of the chocolate in the world. However at the moment, having been boarded quite firmly into her room, she felt she could have given them all away for free. They of course left a cat flap on the door so they could slip in food.

Julia rested her elbow on her balcony, after throwing the terribly expensive porclin plates to the unforgiving cobblestones below. She was trying to work out thoughts from her mottled and terrible confused brain. She found that she felt like she was missing something terribly important. She hated being surrounded by stone, but she wasn't to be outside her room for any reason what so ever. At least until she got safely married off, or until her parents ceased to be abnormally paranoid. Which ever came first.

On her third day of pondering, she found with a shock that she actually missed The Black Knight. Why the hell did she miss him? She even found her thoughts sounding like his flustered shouting too.

On her fourth day she found herself talking to the canaries that sung outside her bed room.

On her fifth day of encasement, she felt so closed in it was about to make her hysterical. She couldn't stand being in the room any longer, or else she would surely go absolutely mad. So she decided to escape, just for a little while, just so she wouldn't feel like bashing her head into the wall. She snatched up the topmost blanket lying on her grand bed and rushed it out to the balcony. She then attempted to tie the blanket to one of the pillars that supported the railing, but she couldn't find a good way to fasten the blanket so it would support her weight. Julia had read this escaping technique in a book once. Of course the main character was escaping from a fire with the love of his life tucked in one arm. The main character managed to do this in less then a minute, so surly Julia, who wasn't carrying a fainted romance interest could escape faster. But alas, no.

"Stupid blanket, doesn't tie right." She muttered unhappily. She plopped down on the cold marble and tossed the blankets to the side. She slumped forward in defeat her forehead rested against the cool marble pillars. They were elegant bars, but bars nevertheless.

She wondered what her family was doing. Where her sisters relieved that she was locked away? Julia couldn't bother them while she was imprisoned. Did her mother cry at night because Julia returned sunburnt and skinnier? She no longer had the plump roundness of a wealthy fertile woman. (It was amazing what two weeks without a full meal and constant walking could do to a figure.) Did her father even notice that she wasn't at the dinner table feeding the hounds scrapes of meat and green beans? What about the white knight? She could still see the knights practicing sometimes. Now that she had at least a small understanding of fighting, she found it allot more interesting, but none of them, at least to her, could compare to the black knight. Maybe she was simply being nostistical.

And what of Abby? She suddenly remembered. They wouldn't have fired her because Julia was kidnaped. Abby had nothing to do with it. Was she alright? Was Abby's mother alright?

Alone in her room, it was like nothing else existed. Maybe nothing else really did exist, maybe it was just dreams, hallucinations. It was obvious even to her, she was going mad.

She didn't know how long she sat still like that, but it was quite late when her delicate ears picked up clanging. _Probably the guards exchanging shifts_. She never did talk to them about their dreadful metal shoes. She really should do that when she got out. If she ever got out...

"Uh... Hey?"

* * *

Yes an update, my it has been a while. Oops.

Well if anyone has any ideas for a plot it would help alot.

Jumping Bean


End file.
